Bye Delhi belly?

Don’t you love international events taking place in your town? Well, you should. Anticipating the arrival of all those athletes and other foreigners in Delhi for the Commonwealth Games in 2010, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has launched its ‘Safe Food, Tasty Food’ campaign. To ensure that everyone landing up in Delhi gets clean, hygienic food during his or her stay, the government body plans to “upgrade the standard of eateries” in the Capital to “international standards and implement proper guidelines”. Which means we desis, too can, at long last, expect ‘safe food’ from 2010. Wow! Thank you foreign people who insist on hygienic food. Unsafe food will be a thing of the past for Delhiites too.

To make sure that things are kept clean, the plan includes ‘mobile food-testing vehicles’. These will suddenly swoop down on the unsuspecting eatery and conduct on-the-spot tests that will determine whether the menu stays or goes.

It’s nice to know that despite all the debate about foreigners seeking out and romanticising ‘dirty, chaotic, but incredibly vibrant India,’ when it comes to food and eating, Westerners coming to India are non-negotiable about what they are eating and where they are eating from. Which means in a year’s time, at least in terms of food hygiene, we may just become a superpower.